Eyesight issues

About 2 years ago I was advised by an eye that I had advanced Glaucoma & needed to see an eye clinic that specialize in Glaucoma & Cataract surgery in both eyes. Before I could do that I was admitted by my primary doctor to the hospital for toe surgery. Djue to an infection I lost 3 toes & a major portion of the outboard side of my left foot. After 6 days in the hospital I was sent home to receive in home nurse service 7 days a week. My recovery time was exceptional slow due to the location of the remaining wound. It was 8 months before I could get into the eye clinic for the cataract surgery. I lost sight in my dominant right eye & had the surgery done on both eyes. 2 yrs ago for the toe surgery & about a year ago for the cataract surgery. My left eye is now my dominant eye with 20-40 corrected vision& virtually 3 fingers sight with my now non dominant right eye.
As a consequence my peripheral vision along with other characteristics has gone you know where & I am not only having problems with my shooting but with my driving. Due to the fact that my right eye was shot they reduced the power & upped the magnification of my now dominant left eye. My peripheral vision is no longer split in the middle of the center of the eyeballs. When pulling up to a gas pump on the shotgun side of the car it looks like I am right on top of the pump when really I am like 6 feet away & the hose sometimes will not even reach. The vision looking the other way (left) is just the opposite but not quite as bad. Going around corners or tight sweepers is virtually nerve shattering. I did asy my eye surgeon a while back and he said that he thought that it was non correctable. Appreciate any help, counsel, or people having similar issues. I have an eye appointment for new glasses in 3 weeks and I've got to come up with ideas.Many thanks in advance.

Your eye doctor should be able to offer some professional advice and solutions, but it seems that you've been suffering for a year.

If possible, I would need more information to provide some insights, such as: your eyeglass prescription before the cataract surgery, the post-op refraction, the prescription for the reduced power and increased magnification for the left eye Rx. 

Depth perception judgement is best when one can see well with both eyes. Prior to the cataract surgery, did you have this depth perception/peripheral vision problem?  Image size seen after cataract surgery is different than when we wore our eyeglasses.  This may be so slight that it may not be noticeable, or be significant which then may cause adjustment problems.

The post-op refraction is very important.  Since you have reduced vision in the left eye and legally blind in the right eye, your responses to the refraction may be difficult which then may sway the final Rx powers.  A couple of tools we use with poor responders would be an autorefractor or retinoscopy.  Although with best efforts to obtain good vision without the use of eyeglasses after cataract surgery, there may be a significant Rx for each eye.  A common thought would be that if one can't see too well, then the Rx is not important.

I don't understand the comment of reduced power and increased magnification to the left eye.  So you were given a less than optimal RX?  Some actual Rx numbers will help.

xmastershooter:
Many thanks for the thoughtful & in-depth response to my issues> I will see what info I can dig up to some of your queries. Something that I forgot to mention: When my partner & I line up targets we put them side by side on a target holder designed to hold 2 standard 50 ft indoor targets & rum them out to 21 ft. These targets are 90 degrees to our direction of shooting & should look the same distance away. However, my target on the left appears to me to be about 4 ft farther out. This is with my corrective glasses on & I believe that this is with both eyes open? How that be? I will check and see if the difference changes with only 1 eye open.

Do I have your permission to copy this, and ask if the doctors at Aravind Eye Hospital have any suggestions?  The people I would talk to specialize in Glaucoma.  The hospital is in India - I do volunteer work there, and will be going back later this year.  I'm pretty sure they would want to see your medical records, so they know specifically what was done, and probably fundus photos of your retina; if so, I will pass that on to you.

Was your surgery done at a hospital that specializes in eye care?

Xmastershooter is by far a better source of information than me.  I suspect the better the information you can provide to him, the better he'll be able to suggest things to consider.

Mike, Sir, I would sincerely appreciate it. Interestingly enough, I have this same thread posted up on several other gun forums, and the responses have ranged from "Turn in your driver's license & get the hell off of the road. You're a danger to society" and 2 likes to his post/solution (this from "Calguns.net) to several people who have had the same issue and have offered genuine compassion, prayers, & possible causes & remedies. I have found 2 or 3 more people that have the same issue and it is starting to appear that this has happened to those that have lost their dominant eye and had to change dominate eyes.
I will find out a tad more this weekend when I go shooting with my buddy. We both use a standard slow fire 50 ft target turned backwards & then add dots. Both targets are put on the same target holder about 5" apart. At 21 ft, my target appears to me to be about 4-5 ft farther out than his even though they are identical in distance. this is with corrective glasses but I don't remember if I have both eyes open or only my now dominant left eye. Yes, my depth perception definitely sucks.

Great news today. I passed all of my tests, including my A1C (Diabetes) that my Doctors had me tested for other than a minor vitamin deficiency which I can take a supplemental pill for. I guess that now I can work on a more solid stance (due to a loss of 3 toes & a major portion of my left foot I sway both forwards & backwards & left side to right side) & trigger control. I will probably always have the depth perception issue but maybe with practice I can learn to control it enough to live with it. Many thanks to all.

I haven't heard back from the hospital; I'll be there in October, so can discuss it more then if nobody gets back to me.

I was thinking about what you wrote, regarding depth perception.  When I first put on a pair of progressive lenses, I thought I was going to get "seasick" the way the world twisted and behaved as I moved my head around.  Their comment - wear them as much as possible.  After a while, all the "distortion" seemed to go away, and I'm fine now - but when I put on my shooting glasses at the range (single prescription) the world looks a little strange for a few minutes.

I' thinking that your depth perception issue may gradually go away, as your brain gets used to it.  


Because of a difference in IOL strength between my left and right eyes, things appear bigger in one eye than the other.  After a short time, even that went away, and unless I'm specifically trying to "see" it, I can't.  

Xmastershooter can probably explain this MUCH better than I can.



Also, can you get a pair of shoes made for your feet, which would somewhat compensate for the surgery you've had?  


When it comes to precision shooting, if I understand correctly, you are not using what used to be your dominant eye.  Maybe wearing an eye patch over that eye would make it easier for you to use your other eye?  My dominant eye is my right eye.  If I try to use my other eye, if feels like I am straining, but when I close my right eye, the straining goes away.

Last idea - assuming you are standing behind a table as you shoot, if you move slightly forwards, so part of your body is resting against the table (for stability, not support) that might help?

Mike:
I believe that virtually everything that you commented on or touched bases on is correct and/or well founded. In many cases I was told the same or almost the same thing on other forums. Many thanks for your suggestions/counsel that you posted I am looking at. I am not only going to lean forward up against the gun rack but I am going to lean left or right against the lane separation wall to stabilize my left to right lean. I have a new eye exam coming up in 2 weeks and I am hoping that clears up my left (now dominant)  left eye some. I can actually tell that I can see better & clearer with only my dominant eye, where when I 1st got the new glasses I could see better with both eyes open. In other words even my non dominant eye helped a tad. No more thought. Many thanks again.

Since there have been no actual prescriptions or data provided, I can give Gary, and any others with concerns, some of my insights during your next eye exam.

1.  Tell your eye doctor not to ignore the prescription for the "bad" eye.  In Gary's case, his legally blind right eye.  Although you may not be able to respond by reading the eye chart during the refraction, if there is a prescription, it may help with your sense of balance with whatever vision you have left.  I learned this from one of my patients who was legally blind in one eye and he told me what has worked for him.  Thereafter, I've always spent a good amount of time with my patients, especially shooters, checking their "bad" eye.  A good idea would be to try the lenses through trial lenses with a trial frame.  The power of these lenses can be changed up or down easily while the patient can walk around the office and noting the sense of balance and depth perception.

2.  Let the doctor know that you do not wish to have your prescription reduced after the refraction.  Time and time again, I hear or read about this common practice, usually for unsubstantiated reasons such as the Rx would be too strong or it may cause adjustment problems.  Gary wrote that the doctor reduced the prescription and increased the magnification for his good left eye.  Why????

3.  Given that steps 1 and 2 are done correctly, then the patient does need to allow enough time for adjusting to the new Rx.  I know my eyes so well that I put on my new glasses without double checking the prescription lenses made by my lab.  I usually can tell if it was made correctly or not.  One trick I've learned was not to try the new glasses during the middle of the day, but rather, after I wake up in the morning.  I only check the prescription to verify after a day or two.  Of course for my patients, their glasses are double checked prior to dispensing.  Because people are different, I've experienced a wide range of adjustment times, some immediate but some others over a couple of months.  By offering a redo warranty for the lenses, especially important when they are very costly, patients are willing to allow enough time for adjustment. 

4.  Don't hesitate to let the doctor know of your adjustment problems.  Don't assume anything.  They want to do their best job possible, but without knowing your issues, they assume all was well.

5.  Image size after cataract surgery may be different.  Please note the chart at the end of this article.

http://www.starreloaders.com/edhall/nwongmain/targetimagesize.html

If one had a fair amount of nearsightedness prior to surgery, images seen after cataract surgery may be 10-15% larger after surgery. If one wears their post-op prescription eyeglasses full time, the adjustment time will be short.  To address Mike Meyers notes on seeing different images sizes with his right and left eyes, this may be because of different powers in each eye and/or that one eye was not corrected as well as the other.  Mike, do you see the different image sizes when you wear your post-op distance Rx also?  Because of the higher nearsightedness of my shooting eye, I see the bullseye 15% smaller than most others.  That will change after future cataract surgery.

Many thanks for the counsel, xmastershooter. My eye exam is scheduled for this coming Friday morning, any I will get the correction #'s & post them up.

xmastershooter wrote:........To address Mike Meyers notes on seeing different images sizes with his right and left eyes, this may be because of different powers in each eye and/or that one eye was not corrected as well as the other.  Mike, do you see the different image sizes when you wear your post-op distance Rx also?  Because of the higher nearsightedness of my shooting eye, I see the bullseye 15% smaller than most others.  That will change after future cataract surgery.

My left eye received an IOL that allowed the image to focus behind the retina   From knowing what I learned from that experience, and talking with the designer of the IOL lenses, I got an IOL for my right eye that was strong enough for me to be sure the point of focus would be in front of the retina.  Worked out as intended.  In daylight, my right eye shows everything sharp from 2 meters to infinity. 

Technically, I do see two different size images from my eyes, but I only notice this because I have always had the ability to use one eye or the other.  Flipping back and forth, there is a difference - the image in the left eye seems slightly smaller - but in daily life, it doesn't bother me, I don't notice it.  I'm sure my brain has long since figured out how to make the two images appear to be the same.  

When wearing my glasses for the same distance (about 15 feet away just now), both images appear the same.

I have the same issues with my eyes, excepting that my right eye sees images smaller than the left eye. This happens without my glasses on and I haven't tried if it is the same with glasses on.

I can tell that I do need new glasses & new prescription #'s nos as my left eye, (now dominant & good eye) sees images clearer with my right eye closed, exactly the opposite condition as when I 1st got these glasses.

I checked my left eye-right eye difference and my left always shows objects larger than my right eye does with glasses & without glasses and it is always the about the same difference.